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Gritty west Franklinton is being primed for redevelopment. But where should the city start?

To answer that question, consultants have been canvassing the West Side neighborhood west of Rt.
315 to identify vacant buildings and lots.

“What they’re trying to come up with is a set of strategies ... for revitalization,” said Vince
Papsidero, Columbus’ planning administrator.

Columbus has no plans to look at every parcel in the neighborhood, much less the entire city.
But that’s being done in some cities, such as Detroit, where teams are taking inventory of all
380,217 buildings and vacant lots to help determine what to do with the estimated 78,000 vacant
structures.

Columbus has an estimated 6,200 vacant buildings, most of them houses. At the same time,
however, some Columbus neighborhoods are plagued with blighted and vacant homes, and residents are
leaving. And some people say detailed surveys are worth the effort.

“There is nothing more important than accurate data, especially in this time of limited
resources,” said Jim Rokakis, who leads the nonprofit Thriving Communities Institute in
northeastern Ohio, which works to revive urban areas. Last year, the institute surveyed all 30,000
parcels in Lorain, a city of 64,000 people in northeastern Ohio.

Lorain officials had estimated that 1,000 properties should be razed. But the survey determined
that only 300 should be demolished.

“They didn’t have a grading system in place,” said Sarah Ryzner, the projects director for the
institute, which took photos of every structure and gave every property a letter grade. A $50,000
grant from a Lorain County foundation paid for the survey.

Ryzner said that before the institute’s survey, Lorain’s demolition list was based on complaints
from residents, city council members and city inspections.

Columbus’ Vacant and Abandoned Properties team doesn’t conduct house-by-house surveys, said John
Turner, Columbus’ land-bank administrator. Residents and city code-enforcement officers refer
properties to the team, he said. Based on those complaints, Columbus plans to spend $11.5 million
to demolish 900 houses.

Papsidero said a citywide survey in Columbus would be expensive and unnecessary.

“The market is stronger. The demographics aren’t as severe in terms of population loss,” he
said.

Turner said the survey in west Franklinton is geared toward analyzing the real-estate market. “
What areas are good for certain types of development?” he said.

The city’s land bank now controls 98 properties in west Franklinton. An additional 67 are on its
list of pending expedited tax foreclosures.

Jim Sweeney, the executive director of the nonprofit Franklinton Development Association, said
the city’s block-by-block survey is “pretty helpful.”

Tedd Hardesty of the Edge group, the planning and landscape-architecture firm performing the
west Franklinton study, said every block tells a different story. For example, some blocks might
have characteristics that suggest that minor work is needed, while others might need significant
rehabilitation or demolition.